Fugitol

2012-04-21

Resizing the /boot partition often becomes necessary when upgrading older Linux systems. A good example of this would be when upgrading from RHEL 5 to RHEL 6 or CentOS 5 to CentOS 6. In the earlier versions, RHEL 5 and CentOS 5, the default partition size is about 100MB. With the bulkier mkinitramfs files (roughly 20 to 30MB each) coming in at 6 to 7 times the size of the old mkinitrd files (roughly 3 to 4MB each), install 2 to 3 kernels and you could find yourself running out of space very quickly. You will almost certainly want to double or triple your existing /boot partition.

There are a few assumptions made in the process outlined below:

Your /boot partition is located at /dev/sda1.

Your /boot partition is using the ext2 or ext3 filesystems.

Your SWAP partition is located at /dev/sda2.

Your /dev/sda2 partition is at least 512MB.

You have a far understanding of the ext filesystem.

You have a far understanding of resizing and partitioning.

You are not performing this on a system currently in production.

You are responsible for any and all damages that may occur from this process.

13. If partition table is correct, write to disk with w. If not, quit with q.

Command (m for help): wThe partition table has been altered!Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used atthe next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)Syncing disks.

14. Check /dev/sda1 for errors to make sure we didn’t corrupt anything in /boot.

2012-04-06

To the tune of “People are Strange” by The Doors:People are tasty, when you’re a zombie.Chewy and crunchy, when you eat them.Women seem wicked, when they run screaming.Streets are uneven, nope, just my legs.You eat brains,Your face rotts off in the rain.You eat brains,No one remembers your name.You eat brains.You eat brains.You eat brains.

To the tune of "If I Only Had a Brain."

And if your head was open,I'd slurp it like its nothin',I'd treat it like a bowl.

2011-02-04

The final open IPv4 block of addresses was released from IANA which caused the final "triggered" release of the last 5 reserve IPv4 blocks. I think that most IT professionals new that this would happen, and most conservative estimates thought that it would occur in December of 2010. However, we wormed a few more months out of it and made it to February 2011.

Well, I have a static IP and run a business from it... So, I thought it was time to get my IPv6 address from Brighthouse / RoadRunner and start my transition. I called Brighthouse and asked for my shiny new 128-bit address. The tier1 rep didn't know what an "IPv" was, but he recognized the word "business" so he passed me up the chain.

After advancing in queue to the next tier of support, I explained that IPv4 was nearly depleted and I wanted to remain in contact with potential customers, so I thought it was time that I get an IPv6 address. The response I got was not that they were not prepared...it was that people are too dumb for such a long address and Brighthouse couldn't possibly support such a mass of stupid people. He explained that since 128-bits is greater than 32-bits, that customers wouldn't be able to understand the address. My experience here is that most non-IT persons do not understand IPv4 address space to begin with, so this argument is corporate fodder and ultimately makes no sense.

Well, anyway, I am not your average idiot [sic], so I pressed a bit further.

The rep further explained that "Brighthouse has plenty of IPv4 addresses remaining" and not to worry. I'm not quite sure Brighthouse has done a proper job of educating their employees. My concern is not that I will no longer be able to access Brighthouse services, but that as the rest of the world starts allocating IPv6 over the next few months, there will be no way for me to get to those networks and for those networks to get to me. Again their argument is corporate fodder meant to assure the uneducated.

After explaining the whole "there are other networks in the world" argument to the Brighthouse rep, he said that he was not aware of any immediate plan for IPv6 and it would probably still be a couple of years out. A couple of years?!? Depletion of the remaining 5 subnet block will occur in less than 6 months! This means IPv6 addresses will be allocated in their stead and that content will be inaccessible to IPv4 only users. I will have to turn customers away because Brighthouse failed to meet a known address exhaustion deadline!

Comcast started Dual-Stack deployment at the end of January. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch Comcast with your router, but really, Comcast? Brighthouse, TimeWarner, and RoadRunner, are you really going to let Comcast show you up?

2011-01-06

I created a patch for Asterisk 1.6.2.16 that allows for one to set the location of the "sounds" directory in /etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf just as one would set the location of the agi-bin (astagidir) directory or spool directory (astspooldir). The patch also checks for the existence of "/mnt/ramdisk/sounds" and uses that for the location if it does.

2010-05-17

Personally, I have used the live method of upgrading my Fedora system for the last 5 releases. I would recommend that you understand what an RPM package is, how the dependency resolution process works, and finally, how to resolve conflicts manually. That being said, if you brick your system, you are the only one to blame.

2010-04-20

The primary purpose of Fugitol is the distribution of custom RPMs for CentOS5/RHEL5. These include several packages that are hard to find, not built to my standard, or otherwise unavailable for these platforms. These also include packages pertaining to OSDial, which are otherwise funded through Call Center Service Group. All RPMs are compiled and maintained by Lott Caskey. They RPM repository is located at http://rpm.fugitol.com.